


Cheating is the only way forward.

by NS918



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 09:42:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28469208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NS918/pseuds/NS918
Summary: UHbased off the Wilbur and schlatt lava video, also handing this in for a writing contest!
Kudos: 6





	Cheating is the only way forward.

**Author's Note:**

> AAAAAAA THIS IS BAD IK IK

The world was beautiful. The forest full of poppies and dandelions, under the peaks of the wispy fog and snow-covered mountains. Yet living in this world had a catch. The first dawn till dusk of your stay, perhaps even two to three days, is just a free and beautiful time. The sun will shine, the plants will flourish, and the caves underground thrive.  
But when the final hour comes, and the gods get bored, they will start their fun. Maybe they'll make the seas rise, maybe they’ll cause the monsters to appear and spawn in the midst of the night. The travellers that are able to leave alive warn the next people wanting to experience freedom and beauty yet not many take heed the warning.  
One day, two travellers that co-owned a company, a ram named J. Schlatt and a human named Wilbur S. decided to visit this wonderful world. Wilbur took no heed to the travellers' warnings, but Schlatt took notice of the signs, the whispers that the gods spoke in. There was a day of peace, that the duo spent relaxing, but only the smart and cunning of them, the ram, made preparations for the flood to come.  
Dusk fell, and in the dawn of the first day, a Watcher deity appeared at the top of the mountain. The god warned them of a flood of lava, rising until they died, then in a flurry of purple, vanished. Wilbur, the innocent and naive one, stood at the lava’s edge, waiting for it to rise, and wasting time. Schlatt, however, started gathering iron.  
Yet the lava rose at a unfortunate time, when Schlatt was still underground, gathering iron.He was submerged, but the ram managed to hide and cover the lava, and Wilbur, his partner, dug him out just before the lava rose once more, flooding the forest and burning most trees.   
Schlatt and Wilbur climbed up the peak of one of the wispy mountains, Schlatt making two buckets along the way, and filled one with water, and the other with the plentiful lava around the duo.  
But Schlatt got greedy. The small tower they built was not enough for both of them, and he announced ‘Wilbur, its time for us to go our separate ways. If you know anything about the accumulation of wealth, having what you have is never enough.’ And the broken-souled Wilbur just had to leave. Schlatt took the ladders from the now broken and looted tower atop the mountain, and started the build upwards, making his way to the highest point, then building a safe and shaky path upwards.   
Wilbur was forced to leave to the side, and as he ran out of resources, his former business partner and friend now a traitor, laughed high above him. Wilbur knew he could climb no further upwards, and so he made a deal with the gods of the mountain, to slow the lava after his demise, so his former friend that he still trusted could survive a bit longer. But as Wilbur made the dangerous climb to Schlatt so that Schlatt could know of the deal, the now greedy ram pushed Wilbur off the edge, off the edge of the rocks into the lava. Wilbur Soot died a slow and painful death, but one of the two was still alive.   
The gods of the mountain had slowed the lava, but Schlatt was still climbing. He knew that the mountain would be ruined, that this would be the finale of this world, and no more travellers would come here. He built a wood shack around himself, and placed two ladders inside, and waited, a small window just large enough for him left open.  
And as Wilbur, now a ghost, phased through the walls, he desperately tried to reason with the ram. ‘Let me in, and I’ll tell the gods to slow the lava.’ he said. But the ram paid no attention to Wilbur. He just laughed, and declared himself Ladder Man, for he would survive, survival of the fittest.  
That laugh, the laugh he did so long ago echoed in his memory. Ladderman didn’t remember much anymore. Was his name even Ladderman? His thoughts would whisper to him there and there, he remembered one person in the midst of it all, though. Wilbur. His...His friend. What had happened to Wilbur? He heard Wilbur, yet no body was seen. Well, he didn’t see anything besides stone, a ladder and a sea of lava. He remembered when he won. But what did he even win? Ladderman had no clue. That euphoric feeling when he succeeded in surviving, having cheated the system. He hadn’t felt that feeling in days...months...How long had he been stuck there? He was a broken man now, wasn’t he? How had Wilbur died? What had happened? ...What did Ladderman do? The thought alone brought tears to his eyes. And he looked to the sea of lava, and walked past the ladders that had granted him life beyond death. Past the ladders that allowed him to cheat the system, and into the lava surrounding him.  
Legends of The Ladder Man aren't uncommon, although the tragedy of Wilbur Soot and Jonathan Schlatt was centuries ago. The elders speak of an insatiable lust for survival and wealth that had taken over a man. They say that he is haunted forever by the souls he betrayed, forever tormented by another's last moments. They say that there is a land of lava, with The Ladder Man in the core, protected solely by his ladders, waiting until he can be freed.  
Although, sometimes, if you listen to the mountains, climb up to a pool of lava up above, you swear that you can hear the whispers of the poor soul Wilbur Soot, having sold his soul to the gods for his friend, and the laughs of a madman, undying, unending, only paused for the slightest of moments, to say, " Cheating is the only way forward. "


End file.
